Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-04-30
THE TRIBUTE TO CALHOUN.

The unwilling of the Calhoun statue in
South Carolina on Monday with pomp and
ceremonial brings the name of the great
Southern statesman to the front of new
prominence, and his remarkable career
viii be re-discussed for the thousandth
time-not, however, with the probability
that any new conclusions win be reached.
The sincerity of John c. Calhoun will
never be questioned by the impartial, nor
viii they attempt to Justify tie doctrines
TO which he held, and which were settled
by the civil war beyond all possible re-
viyal. Tde nationality OF the union of
the States was to him repulsiye, since, ac-
cording to his view, a State alone possessed
the right TO define the bounds of duty and
obligation of the citizen to the Federal
Government. The great aim of his life
was TO effect the division of the Senate
equally between the slaye-holding and the
free States. He would have no new States
carved from Territories, except by equal
division between freedom and slavery In
fact, this meant the insured supremacy of
the South, since she could always count
upon degree of Northern support which
would, with that of her own section, assure
her domination. Calhoun's idea of unity
Of the States was, indeed, only that of the
convenient cohesion of sovereign States, not
union Of the people of 4 nation, compact,
and indissoluble by the act of am one or
group of States. In his celebrated speech
of March ALSO, on the admission of
California, he declared that the States of
the South believed they could not remain
in the Unien under the conditions as they
then were, because of the slavery agitation
at the North, and the disturbance of equi-
hbrium between the two sections as it
stood when the Constitution was ratified.
Throughout that mastery Grafton there is
discoyerable no thought that did not hinge
upon the two sections" idea, and the
supposed encroachment by one upon the
other, and the right of one to have such
po"Si III NonSIcSS DIS W prOlecl Itself
against the other. Thus, to Calhoun the
Union was only a condition of enforced
peace between two sections" all the
natural forces of which impelled them
to contention and separation. He saw that
the North was rapidly outstripping the
South in population and industry, and he
could conceive of no equalizing remedy ex-
cept preservation of political equality
in Congress. Here, he declared in 1850,
is the North with three millions of peo-
pie in excess Of the South, and with Della
ware considered as neutral, with fifteen
against fourteen States in the South, and
with heavy northern majority in the
Electoral College. There is, he said, North
ern preponderanee in every department OF
the Government, and a concentration in ii
OF the two elements which constitutes the
Federal Government-majority of States,
and majority of population; and so the
North possesses the control of the entire
Government. While declaiming that this
consideration would bring on disunion, he
agreed that the cords of the Union were
too many and too strong to be suddenly
snappcd-it would be a work of time.
Calhoun died in that wear, but he was pro-
phetic SO far as forecasting the effort to dis
solve the Union. 1t was in this remark
able Grafton that he declared the Union
could be preserved only by adopting such
measures rs would satisfy the States of the
Southern section that they could remain
In the Union consistently with their
honor and their safety" The measures
werenot adopted; California came into the
Union free State; the war settled the
question OF the preservation of the Union,
and the prophecy of Calhoun came to
ashes. the statue that has been the cause
of the revival of old memories, is a tribute
by a loving people to man of great
genius, 4 mastery mind, and one of the
statesmen of the Nation whose name is
interviewer with some Of the most event
full years OF her history 1t is not prob
ably, on the part of the South more than
tear to the past, but a personal tribute
by South Carolina to one of the most
brilliant minds in the galaxy of brilliant
men that State has given to the Nation.